


Rule 704

by wishfulfanficing



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Leia and Jyn are survivors, Star Wars AU, survivor strong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishfulfanficing/pseuds/wishfulfanficing
Summary: Leia wonders if she could defend a rapist in court, and Luke comes to terms with what supporting his sister looks like.





	Rule 704

Leia tapped her fingers impatiently against the briefing room door, waiting for her brother. “I’m here!” he called from the hallway.

“Finally. Shall we go in?” Leia said as she opened the door to the briefing room. Luke nodded and followed her inside. The pair found their way to of seats near the front and settled in as Mon Mothma addressed the room.

“You’re all here because you’ve expressed interest in the public defender position in our Corellia office,” Mon Mothma droned. Leia nodded intently. “I assume most of you are familiar with what the office does. We handle misconduct complaints under the government agent Code of Conduct including workplace integrity, labor disputes, and of course accusations arising under Rule 704.”

Leia bristled. Rule 704 was the sexual harassment and assault rule - she’d help write it. Writing the statute had helped her work through her own past of sexual violence, and the idea of defending people who were accused of doing the things she had suffered put a pit in her stomach. Luke sensed his sister’s discomfort and leaned over to her. “You ok?”

“Yeah, fine.” Leia said shortly, taking a deep breath as she raised her hand. “Do we have any say about which cases we take on? For example, if we don’t feel like we could take on 704 cases…”

Mon Mothma sighed. “No, you don’t get any say. This comes up a lot so I want you all to listen to me: the time will come in this job when you are asked to defend people whose behavior you might not agree with. Some of them will be guilty. If that’s not something you can do, I would reconsider applying for this position,” she continued patronizingly. “That’s one of the ideals we fought for: fair adjudication. It’s essential to the procedural integrity of the adjudication process. It’s imperative that you understand that.”

Leia nodded; Luke noticed her turning pale. As Mon Mothma turned to finish her presentation, Leia started to gather her data pad. She stood up, nodded curtly her colleagues sitting between her and the door, and left silently.

—  
“Hey? What was that about?” Luke asked, walking briskly to catch up to his sister. He could sense tension within her, but it wasn’t something he recognized.

“What do you mean?”

“Leia, hey!” He grabbed her arm. “You knew what you were getting into. Smuggler, murderers, rapists… everyone gets a fair trial. That’s how the system works. That’s due process. I believe in those things, I thought you did too.”

“You don’t understand” she mumbled, shrugging off his grip.

“Why? ”

She turned away from him. “Because it’s never happened to you.“

—  
Jyn and Leia sat at the café table; Leia had called her friend for a spontaneous caffeine break. Jyn sipped her black coffee pensively while Leia blew on her latte.

"Luke’s right, everyone’s entitled to a fair trial. But I’m not sure…” she trailed off.

Jyn put her hand on her friend’s and smiled knowingly. “I know. I know.” She took another gulp of coffee. “Even rapists are entitled to a lawyer, but there’s nothing that says it has to be you.”

“I know. But I just don’t know… Does this mean I’m in the wrong business?”

Jyn shook her head. “Absolutely not. You belong exactly where you are. Look… I agree that the scales of justice have two sides, and they both have to be equal. But Leia… they’re already tipped in the rapist’s favor anyway. You can’t blame yourself for not being part of the system that is so incredibly corrupt.” She smiled. “You’re in exactly the right place.“

Leia laughed. "Thank you for that. It’s so interesting, Mon kept going on and on about the procedural integrity of the adjudication process, and I kept thinking…”

“What procedural integrity?” Jyn snorted.

“Yes! Exactly!” Leia exclaimed. “Exactly.”

Jyn moved to gather her things. “I gotta go, but… Don’t blame yourself for not wanting to referee a rigged game.”

Leia nodded. “I won’t.”

—  
Luke walked in to the loading dock of the Millennium Falcon to find Han on his back, looking up at the shield controls. He waved sheepishly at his brother-in-law, who smirked and pulled himself to his feet.  

“Jyn was here?” Luke gestured to the woman’s jacket on a nearby chair.

Han nodded. “Yeah, she had coffee with Leia then came by to chat.”

“Leia mad at me?”

“No, she’s not mad at you. She’s mad at the situation. She’s mad at the structure.”

“That’s all the more reason for her to take the job, she can work on changing things from the inside. Besides, it’s been so long since what happened.”

Han rubbed his jaw pensively. “Sorry kid, I’m not with you on this one.“

Luke made a face. “I don’t mean she has to get over it.”

“I know that.”

Luke paused for a moment. “Maybe if I talk to Jyn…”  

"I wouldn’t talk to Jyn about this,” Han muttered, shooing Luke a glance.

Luke blanched. “Both of them?”

“Most of them. Listen, for us, rape is a tool of warfare, but for them… for women… it’s part of their everyday lives.” Han wrung his hands, thinking about the nights when he held Leia after a nightmare or the days he watched Jyn scream with rage after a flashback. “It’s like they’re walking through sand, kid. They’re doing all this work for the Republic plus dealing with this… this THING. I don’t know how they do it. She has to do what she has to do to survive. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for her to want to put up a boundary.”

For a second, the two men stood in silence. Luke walked over to the chair and sat down. His sister was stronger than him in so many ways; objectively, he knew what happened on the Death Star and in Jabba’s palace, and empirically he knew she was struggling, but he hadn’t let himself think about what that might mean. Leia hadn’t talked to him about what it was like living every day with the specter of PTSD looming over her. For the first time, his sister’s pain seemed real. For the first time he saw the way events and feelings that seemed so far away could suddenly resurface.  He sighed. “She’s right, I don’t get it.”

Han smiled and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You don’t have to get it to be there for her.”

—

Han walked in to the apartment to find Leia sitting at their table, reading her DataPad intently. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead. She looked up and smiled at him. “Hey hotshot.”

“Hey Princess.” Han pulled up a chair to sit next to her. “How did it go today?”

“You know… I don’t think that public defender position is gonna work out. It’s important work and I’m glad they’re doing it, but I don’t think it’s for me,” she said plainly.

“Mmmmmm,” Han muttered. “That’s fair.” He leaned in closer to her. “I talked to Luke just now.”

Leia looked up from the DataPad at last. “Oh?”

“Yeah… and I just wanna say… you’re fucking incredible.”

Leia smiled. “I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this after a particularly lovely Law School meeting.


End file.
